Grade 1 action returns to Kyoto Racecourse for the next two weeks, with the first of the Japan Autumn International Series of races in the Gr.1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup. The race is for fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up, and is run over 2,200 meters on the outer turf track at Kyoto. There are 22 fillies and mares nominated for a maximum field of 18, and the defending champion, Queens Ring, is back for another try. The 5-year-old mare by Manhattan Cafe is looking for consecutive victories in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup, and is coming off a fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Ireland Trophy Fuchu Himba Stakes.
The great Snow Fairy won the race two years in a row in 2010 and 2011. Although, there were six nominations from overseas this year, but finally the race has boiled down to a contest with Japanese contenders only. Crocosmia is coming off a solid win when she led all the way to win the Grade 2 Ireland Trophy Fuchu Himba Stakes. But she has to make quite a leap in improvement to win this Gr.1 race.: Among her nine career starts, four of her races have been Grade 1s, and Lys Gracieux finished second most recently in the Shuka Sho. She is expected in the top 3.
Smart Layer won the Gr.2 Kyoto Daishoten in great style but this will be her ninth start in a Grade 1. She may be now showing her age when pitted against younger horses. Rouge Buck seems to seems to be losing her edge a little but will be one to watch. Deep Impact filly, Vivlos is by boosted by her stature this year with a win in Dubai (Dubai Turf), and in her one run since, she finished second in the Grade 2 Ireland Trophy Fuchu Himba Stakes over 1,800 meters at Tokyo. She won the Grade 1 Shuka Sho in 2016. She should definitely finish in the top three under champion jockey Christophe Lemaire.
Yasutoshi Ikee-trained Mikki Queen, who sits atop the JRA trainers rankings with 50 wins, will be looking for his first win in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup. Another Deep Impact mare and is expected to do well in this exciting race. Deirdre, the recent winner of the Shuka Sho provided her sire, Harbinger, with his first JRA Grade 1 victory, and Deirdre seems to be a filly on the up. She should give the other competitors a tough run for their money.
All in all a very interesting race to look forward to.
No | Horse Name | Age | Origin | Pedigree | Trainer | Owner | Jockey | Race Form |
1 | Queen's Milagro | 5 | JPN | Manhattan Café-Just Too Too(In Excess) | Masamichi Wada | Queen's Ranch Co. Ltd. | Kota Fujioka | 12,3,2 |
2 | Happy Yunibansu | 5 | JPN | Jungle Pocket-Admire C'est lavie(Sunday Silence) | Osamu Hirata | Tetsuya Kamei | Kenichi Ikezoe | 7,1,7 |
3 | Tosen Victory | 5 | JPN | King Kamehameha-To the Victory(Sunday Silence) | Katsuhiko Sumii | Takaya Shimakawa | Andrea Atzeni | 5,2,9 |
4 | Crocosmia | 4 | JPN | Stay Gold-Developpe(Boston Harbor) | Katsuichi Nishiura | Ryoichi Otsuka | Ryuji Wada | 1,1,4 |
5 | Mozu Katchan | 3 | JPN | Harbinger-Site Dealer(King Kamehameha) | Ippo Sameshima | Capital System Co. Ltd. | Mirco Demuro | 3,7,2 |
6 | Lys Gracieux | 3 | JPN | Heart's Cry-Liliside(American Post) | Yoshito Yahagi | U.Carrot Farm | Yuichi Fukunaga | 2,3,5 |
7 | Queens Ring | 5 | JPN | Manhattan Café-Aqua Ring(Anabaa) | Keiji Yoshimura | Chizu Yoshida | Cristian Demuro | 4,6,15 |
8 | Touching Speech | 5 | JPN | Deep Impact-Listen(Sadler's Wells) | Sei Ishizaka | Sunday Racing Co. Ltd. | Kohei Matsuyama | 7,13,9 |
9 | Denko Ange | 4 | JPN | Meisho Samson-Denko Lucky(Marienbard) | Yoshiyuki Arakawa | Yasuhiro Tanaka | Masayoshi Ebina | 8,8,2 |
10 | Mikki Queen | 5 | JPN | Deep Impact-Musical Way(Gold Away) | Yasutoshi Ikee | Mizuki Noda | Suguru Hamanaka | 3,7,1 |
11 | Deirdre | 3 | JPN | Harbinger-Reizend(Special Week) | Mitsuru Hashida | T.Morita | Yasunari Iwata | 1,1,1 |
12 | Smart Layer | 7 | JPN | Deep Impact-Snow Style(White Muzzle) | Ryuji Okubo | Toru Okawa | Yuga Kawada | 1,2,4 |
13 | Jour Polaire | 4 | JPN | Deep Impact-Summer Night City(Helissio) | Masato Nishizono | G1 Racing Co. Ltd. | Hideaki Miyuki | 1,3,3 |
14 | Ukiyono Kaze | 7 | JPN | On Fire-Admire Dash(Fusaichi Concorde) | Takanori Kikuzawa | Jun Kokubu | Norihiro Yokoyama | 14,10,9 |
15 | Maximum de Paris | 5 | JPN | King Kamehameha-Mlle de Paris(Sunday Silence) | Shigeki Matsumoto | Green Farm | Yusuke Fujioka | 9,7,1 |
16 | Vivlos | 4 | JPN | Deep Impact-Halwa Sweet(Machiavellian) | Yasuo Tomomichi | Kazuhiro Sasaki | Christophe Lemaire | 2,1,5 |
17 | Rouge Buck | 5 | JPN | Manhattan Café-Ginger Punch(Awesome Again) | Masahiro Otake | U.Carrot Farm | Ryan Moore | 1,10,8 |
18 | Eterna Minoru | 4 | JPN | Empire Maker-Daiwa Gelato(Fuji Kiseki) | Masaru Honda | Minoru Yoshioka | Hirofumi Shii | 1,5,2 |
1) Lys Gracieux
2) Deirdre
3) Vivlos